God is love (1 John 4:8) so if we are to know God, we must know love.  God defines love for us in Scripture (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).  He tells us that love never ends, love never fails, love endures all things, but does it?

The power of love is obvious.  It is the love of God revealed through the Scripture, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that has released power to turn millions of hearts from pride and selfishness to love, humility, and generosity.  He loved us first (1 John 4:19) and when we realize the depth of His love, we fall in love with Him and want to honor Him with our life.  Lives are changed by the love of God in Jesus Christ.  

But not everyone has turned back to God.  The Bible is also clear that there are even some who will know the love of God and still turn away.  This can be a mystery for us when we are in difficult relationships.  If love never fails, it would seem that if I can love well or at least love better, it would save the relationship.  To rescue marriages, one would only need to love like Christ.  To rescue wayward teenagers, one would only need to love them and they would change.  But we know this is not the reality.  Jesus loved perfectly.  He is perfect love, yet in the end, many people hated Him.  Yet, we must hold true to the Word and declare that love never fails.  Love never ends.  But how do we reconcile these two truths?

God is love and love is God.  God is eternal without beginning nor end.  Because He is eternal so then is love.  Love is not what God does.  It is the essence of His being.  And we know God is omnipotent.  He has no enemy to dethrone Him.  He is and will always be king.  So, in this sense love endures forever.

When we accept Christ, it is God who comes into our spirit.  Jesus Christ comes into our heart by the Holy Spirit.  So also then, love enters into our heart, the agape love of God is what I am referring to not the ungodly, conditional, self-centered manner of love we see in society where God is absent.  Because God is love, to hold on to God, we must embrace and never release the love that is God.  And as we are united with God, we are united with love.  When we reject God, the outcome will always be a release of love which is the same as an increase of sin.  They are opposites.  

Holding on to God, holding on to love, keeps me united with God just as Jesus prayed for us to be at one with God just as He was at one with the Father.  When I reject God, and thus reject love, I no longer have the essence of that which will endure forever.  What remains is not of God and will be destroyed.  The destruction will occur in stages beginning in this life and continue in the afterlife.  Should this happen, love did not fail.  Love endured.  Love may be rejected, but it never fails.  When I take hold of love by taking hold of God, that love in me will transform me and accomplish the will of God in me.  To reject God is to dismiss love.  It is not that love would fail as much as love is now absent.

When we hold on to love, His power in us will accomplish His will through us and being united in Him, we will be more than overcomers in all things.  And how do we know if we are holding on to God?  It is made evident by our motives and lifestyle.  If these are full of His love, we hold tight to God.  If these are empty of His love, we deceive ourselves to think we are still holding on to God.  And this brings me to our Verse of the Day:

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John 3:36 (ESV)

Leave me a comment.  When is it hard to hold on to love?

Live Blessed and Be a Blessing!

PS: Be sure to subscribe and I will send you “10 Principles for Living in God’s Abundant Plan for Your Life.”